


worth all the gold in the quadrant

by quarks bar (sharknana29)



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Author Has No Idea How To Tag, Episode: s01e19: Acquisition, Gen, the enterprise bridge crew is full of gossips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27582334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharknana29/pseuds/quarks%20bar
Summary: “So, how many bars of gold do you think I’m worth?” She couldn’t hide the smile in her voice.Commander Tucker reluctantly finished the bite of pie he had been chewing on. “You read the report?”Hoshi shrugged, settling into the seat across from him. “Most of it.”
Relationships: Hoshi Sato & Charles "Trip" Tucker III, Jonathan Archer & Charles "Trip" Tucker III, Travis Mayweather & Charles "Trip" Tucker III, Travis Mayweather & Hoshi Sato
Kudos: 9





	worth all the gold in the quadrant

Hoshi skimmed through Commander Tucker’s report. It was one of only three, given that most of the crew- herself included- had been knocked out cold during the whole encounter. She was supposed to be passing it through to Starfleet Command (and she _would_ , eventually) but in the time that it took to upload into the system, the Communications Officer decided to piece together the puzzle before her. 

The Captain, diplomatic as ever, had chosen to give more details on the aliens themselves than on the actual events. First Officer T’Pol was more critical in her report, outlining a precise time-table of the “heist” and their plan to detain them. Both were dry reading, as far as Hoshi was concerned. It was Trip’s report that had caught her eye. 

She had never read such a strange report. Apparently, he had run through the ship several times over in nothing but his underwear, instigated a brawl with the captain, and somehow managed to lure the cowardly aliens into a trap. And, strangely enough, called her his wife. 

At that, she had to laugh. The noise drew Travis’s attention, the helmsman shooting a worried look her way. “ _Later_ ,” she mouthed, before turning back to the reports. The computer had finished the upload process and was ready to be sent off to Starfleet Command. Hoshi hit the button, wondering how their superiors at Command would take this… _unique_ first encounter. 

It was the next day, and Hoshi had finally gotten her chance to talk to Trip after the whole incident. 

“So, how many bars of gold _do_ you think I’m worth?” She couldn’t hide the smile in her voice.

Commander Tucker reluctantly finished the bite of pie he had been chewing on. “You read the report?”

Hoshi shrugged, settling into the seat across from him. “Most of it.”

“Sorry about bringing you into that whole mess.” He scratched the back of his head as she started in on her salad. “Couldn’t say Malcolm, he knew T’Pol was ‘the Vulcan,’ and I didn’t wanna drag a random officer into things.” 

“Don’t worry about it. I’m almost flattered.” Hoshi waved the apology away. The pair fell into companionable silence before Trip spoke up again.

“I say you’re worth ‘bout 25 bars.”

She put a hand to her chest in mock offense. “So few?”

The engineer snorted. “The captain only offered me 15.”

Travis walked up with a tray. “15 what?” 

“15 bars of gold to let an alien take Trip’s wife.” At that, he turned to Tucker with wide eyes. 

With a shit-eating grin on his face, he continued to confuse the poor helmsman. “Hoshi, my wife of convenience.”

“Har har. What’s the real story?” Travis slid into an empty seat at the table, listening to Hoshi and Trip’s animated, often overlapping re-telling of the alien invasion. It wasn’t until Trip’s pie had completely disappeared, and only the dressing-soaked leaves at the bottom of Hoshi’s salad remained that they finished relaying the encounter to Travis. 

“What happened to you during all of that, anyway?” Hoshi pointed her fork in Travis’s direction. “I saw they had to reinstall your chair.” 

“I woke up on the floor, guess they dumped me out of it,” he said. “They did the same to Malcolm, he almost kicked me in the face when we woke up.” 

Trip nodded, taking a pickle from Travis’ plate as he did so. “Sounds about right. They were taking everything they could get their hands on. One of ‘em wanted Phlox’s old medical stapler for his private collection.”

“No way. Not even an antique dealer would want that thing.” 

“Don’t let Phlox catch you saying that,” Hoshi warned. “I’ve heard that the last time an ensign asked if he wanted to replace some of his tools, he-” She was cut off by the voice of a panicked engineer whose name she couldn’t quite recall. 

“Commander Tucker.”

He rose and moved quickly to the panel on the wall of the mess hall. “I’m here.”

“There’s a situation down here, the plasma conduits on Deck 3 just ruptured.”

“ _Shit_. Be there in a sec.” Travis had never seen the commander move that quickly before, and the man wasn’t known for his leisurely pace. 

There were a few off-duty engineers lounging around a table that had snapped to attention at the comm and had risen in the quiet that followed Trip’s harried exit. They followed him at a slower speed, still rushing to lessen the nightmarish clean-up job that would come after repairs. The remaining officers, command and sciences, all shared a concerned look, the hush of the mess hall evident. “Guess that’s our cue to turn in for the night, huh?” A shaky joke from a junior grade lieutenant. 

They stayed there for a while longer, no one wanting to be the first to scamper away. Eventually, Hoshi pulled Travis out of the room, her head held high. “C’mon,” she whispered. “We have 15 minutes before Delta shift starts and it’s gonna be hell getting there with the plasma in the way.”

Bridge duty could be many things: exciting, dangerous, or just plain boring. And despite the chaos on Deck 3, the bridge was just about as lively as a graveyard. Captain Archer sighed, the viewscreen displaying the same darkness streaked with distant stars that they had all seen any number of times before. “Trip, how’re things going down there?”

“Just peachy, Cap’n.” The weak squelching sounds of plasma around the engineering team’s feet said otherwise, but Jonathan chose to ignore the sound coming through the speakers, continuing on as if things were actually peachy. 

Hoshi tuned out the rest of the short conversation, knowing it would just be more of the brotherly banter the captain and chief engineer were known to exchange. She focused on the staticky radio silence of the open comms channels, paying attention again to the Captain when she heard her name. 

“Hoshi, Trip says hi.” Archer was confused, she could see it written across his face. “He mentioned something about gold bars?”

Internally, she cursed Trip. Of course, he was going to make her explain the joke. In front of the entire bridge crew. She cringed, taking a breath to steel herself. “Do you remember the fight you and Commander Tucker got into while the aliens were on board?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
